


Promises

by CarmenImbrium



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 12:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3382406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarmenImbrium/pseuds/CarmenImbrium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for 12 Days of Kristanna on Tumblr. My brain likes to surprise me with sad headcanons about Kristoff’s past, so I took one and ran with it.</p><p>[contains mentions of fire]</p>
    </blockquote>





	Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 12 Days of Kristanna on Tumblr. My brain likes to surprise me with sad headcanons about Kristoff’s past, so I took one and ran with it.
> 
> [contains mentions of fire]

_The heat is too much._

_Everything is glowing orange. The air is nothing but dust, and he can’t breathe. All he can feel is fire, and all he can hear is the sound of his mother coughing as she holds the last piece of intact cloth over his mouth. He doesn’t know where his father is. He tries to find a positive thought, but his mind is clouded with smoke, confusion, and overwhelming warmth._

_Out of the corner of his eye, he sees his mother collapse against the crackling floor. The cloth falls to the ground. With the last of her strength, she rips one of the burning boards from the wall. Left behind is a gap just wide enough for a child to crawl through. Twisting the gold band off her finger, she beckons for her son to come closer. He stumbles through the debris, eyes too scratched and sore to cry._

_"Kristoff, listen to me," she gasps between coughs. "Sweetheart, you can’t stay here. You have to get out."_

_"You’re coming too, right, Mama?" He is hopeful, but he has a very bad feeling that he can’t shake._

_"I can’t, I won’t make it. But you can."_

_"But Mama, I’ll be all alone!" His voice is pleading, screaming despite the scratchy pain in his throat._

_"Keep this close to your heart, Kristoff," she presses the ring into his hand, "and you will never be alone. Now go!"_

_He kisses his mother’s cheek one last time and tries not to look back as he squeezes through the opening in the wall. He crawls through the snow until he is too far away to see the glowing remains of everything he’s ever known._

* * *

 

He spent his time floating from village to village, keeping himself detached and distant, the fear that nothing is permanent ever present in the front of his mind. The two constants he had were Sven and the golden ring he kept tucked in the breast pocket inside his vest.

Sometimes he wondered if his mother was lying when she said he’d never be alone. (His new family loves him, and he loves them back, but a human can only feel so included in a group of trolls.) The walls around his heart built themselves up, and nobody bothered to try tearing them down.

Nobody until Anna, that is.

She crashed right through them, as she did with most things. Whenever he would find himself alone, she would find him. At first her constant presence confused and almost irritated him; he’d spent most of his years only knowing people who left his life almost as soon as they entered it. He didn’t know how to handle a person who stayed. But as time went on, he found himself missing her presence whenever he wasn’t in it. And from what he could tell (and what Elsa would tell him), she had the same sentiment.

Their affection continued to grow, and after thirteen months and countless awkward conversations with Elsa, he decided he’d like to find out if she wanted to spend her life with him as badly as he wanted to spend his with her. And, as it turns out, she did.

Once they had both recovered from the initial giddy shock of engagement, his mother’s words came floating back to him. One of his hands took hers, and the other reached into his vest, pulled out his mother’s ring, and carefully slid it onto her finger. He didn’t want to be alone again, and what good would it do for the ring to be with him when his heart was with Anna?


End file.
